apt-get dummy installation

["Martin Bialasinski" <martin@internet-treff.uni-koeln.de>]

Hi,

I work on a consistency and general check ckeck for the task-*
packages. 

Now I ran into some problems I do not understand.

This is the apt.conf file I use:

APT
{
  Architecture "alpha";
}

Dir
{
  Etc "/home/martinb/bootmaster/" {
    sourcelist "sources.list";
  }
  State "/home/martinb/bootmaster/state-alpha/" {
    status "initial.status";
  } 
  Cache "/home/martinb/bootmaster/cache-alpha/" {
  }
}

$ apt-get -f -s -c apt.conf.alpha install task-sgml
[...]
Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies:
  task-sgml: Depends: xemacs20
E: Sorry, broken packages

$ apt-cache  -c apt.conf.alpha dumpavail | grep xemacs20 | grep Provides
Provides: emacsen, info-browser, mail-reader, news-reader,www-browser, xemacs20

Also:

$ apt-get -f -s -c apt.conf.alpha install task-sgml-dev
Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies:
  task-sgml-dev: Depends: task-sgml but it is not installed
E: Sorry, broken packages

$ apt-cache  -c apt.conf.alpha show task-sgml | grep Depends 
Depends: docbook (>= 3.0-5), docbook-doc, sp, jade (>= 1.2.1), docbook-stylesheets (>= 1.24-1), jadetex (>= 2.6-2), sgml-data, debiandoc-sgml, sgmltools-2, psgml (>= 1.1.6-3) | xemacs20, docbook-xml, cygnus-stylesheets, docbook2man, docbook2texi, docbook-to-man-ans
$ apt-cache  -c apt.conf.alpha show task-sgml-dev | grep Depends
Depends: task-sgml, sgmlspm, python-xml, libxml-parser-perl, libxml-writer-perl, lib-sax-java, lib-xp-java, libxml-perl

I have no Idea how to deal with this.

If I try the apt-get install operations on my i386 box for real, that
is without -c ..., it works as expected. 

apt-get will simply also pull and install the needed packages ("The
following extra packages will be installed" and so on).

Hmm, I just tried it with a setup like for the alpha tests, but with
i386 (s/alpha/i386/ in the apt.conf file and the commands), and it
works as expected.

/me is even more confused.

Could someone tell me where the thinko on my side is, or is this a
error in apt?

Ciao,
	Martin